Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Carm Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis A busy day in the Twins Olly on the lead  Me on the lead Today Olly and I grabbed a gondola and chair lift ride up the hill to have a go at some routes on Aonach Mor. Out two original route choices on North Buttress had massive cornices above them and a rope was in situ on Icicle Gully (not sure why but someone clearly had to run away from it). In the end we joined the queue on Right Twin but after waiting 30 mins for a team to clear pitch one we down climbed and headed onto Forgotten Twin II and headed up there. There was a team up at the cornice digging through and throwing copious amounts of snow at us but we appreciated their efforts. The snowpack today had a shallow surface layer that was not greatly bonded and traversing round the bottom of some of the routes had some pockets that were very unstable.

Over the last two days of the training course we have been out on an expedition . During the trip we looked at navigation both day and night, snowholing skills and climbing short steep sections of snow. The weather was kind to us again and it got colder during the night meaning that our snow holes did not collapse in on us. Today was stunning and very warm so the thaw continues ....

Dealing with a "dislocated knee" Making walls A shovel up Mapwork Today on the 4th day of the training course, Steve and I took the candidates to Drumochter where we looked at navigation skills and dealing with incidents. Although 90mph winds were forcast the most we got was the odd 40mph gust so we made the summit of Geal Charn at 917m before dropping off to build some walls and shovels ups.

 Click to enlarge then spot the avalanches Jumping around in crampons Ropework practice 3 brave (or stupid) people on an avalanche prone slope. Today on day 3 of the Winter Mountain Leader Training Courses, Steve and I joined forces with Heather (and Millie the SARDA Dog) and took the candidates into Coire an t'Sneachda to look at more steep ground work. We looked at rock belays, snow pack analysis, snow bollards and bucket seats as well as confidence roping. We then looked at how to teach crampon skills on the small amount of ice available. There was a huge amount of avalanche debris in and around the coire and with the avalance forecast at high we expected to see one during the day. At 15:20 we saw a cornice collapse that triggered an avalanche the full length of Jacobs Ladder a mere 20mins after a team of 3 had sauntered across it.

Rime build up Digging Buckets Seats Ice Axe Arrest Today we were back at Glenshee looking at more advanced winter skills. We looked at step cutting, bucket seats, buried axes and more ice axe arrest on steeper ground. The weather was as forecast with the temperature rising and wind picking up during the day. The candidates all showed great improvement in confidence and movement over steep ground.

Poor Vis Snowpack analysis Emergency Shelters Today I was working with Steve Spalding of High Expectations on a Winter Mountain Leader Training Course. We took the candidates out to Glenshee where we looked at footwork, Ice Axe arrest, snow shelters and snowpack analysis. The weather was a bit wild in the morning but it settled down to a really pleasant afternoon.

A row of Avalanche Test Pits Emergency Snow Shelter Heading down Today I was again working for Jagged Globe on the last day off the Intro to Mountaineering Course. Sam and I headed up into Coire nan Lochain where we looked at snow pits, emergency shelters and some more simple ropework. Once again we were joined by Mark making the instructor client ratio nice and low.